Highlights 5/24/13

 I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend!!

• For the Twitter users @WHS - Twitter Adds Two-Factor Authentication

Professional Development 

This post comes from George Couros (@gcouros ) blog The Principal of Change.  George is an amazing educational leader from Canada.  He will be the keynote speaker at next year's Edscape Conference at New Milford High School on October 19, 2013.  

10 Expectations from Students

Highlights 5/17/13

News

Special Weekend for WHS Students - From the Eyes of Twitter 

HSPA results are in and again our students got the job done.  I know the Math and Language Arts teachers were really glad to finally see the results of all their hard work.  If we look at the numbers:

• In 2013, 44 students, 35.8% scored advanced proficient on the Math section.  In 2012 31.7% scored advanced proficient and in 2011 24.8% scored advanced proficient. 
• In 2013, 29 students, 23.6% scored advanced proficient on the Language Arts section.  In 2012 17/9% scored advanced proficient. 
• For the Language Arts section we had 100% of our special needs students pass.  That is special!
• We still have some work to do in Math and Language Arts to insure everyone meets the graduation requirement.  We have nine students that still need to pass the Math section and three for Language Arts.  

Congratulations and Thank You to Mrs. Getlik and Mrs. Montella for putting on a great Spring Concert/Festival of the Arts last Thursday night.  The entire Related Arts Department did an amazing job showcasing all of the creativity and talented work our students have been working on during the year.  Thank You - Ms. Ruch, Ms. Cook, Mrs. Taylor, Mr. Meltzer, Mr. Drechsel and Ms. Sobkowicz for all of your hard work.    

The third annual Waldwick High School Alumni Soccer Game is set for 2 p.m. on June 29 at the Waldwick High School stadium field.  The soccer game aids the scholarship fund in honor of Michael Mayer.  Read more about the game here: Waldwick soccer game aids scholarship fund

Tuesday, May 21 - Minimum Day/Professional Development 
PD will again be devoted to learning the Marshall Rubrics; same groups and locations as the March sessions.

Modified Bell Schedule for Tuesday, May 21 (Biology Competency Exam) 

Period 1 8:15 - 8:59 (44 minutes)
Period 2 9:02 - 9:46 (44 minutes)
Period 3 9:49 - 10:33 (44 minutes)
Period 4 10:36 - 11:00 (24 minutes)
Period 5 or 6 11:03 - 11:30 (27 minutes)
Period 8 11:33 - 12:03 (30 minutes)
Period 9 12:06 - 12:36  (30 minutes)
**Period 6B or 7 will be eliminated for the day. 

Blog Post/Tweets:

April Student's of the Month 

1st Place @ The Thomas Edison Foundation Design Competition

Traffic Safety Challenge - Texting PSA wins first place

Walk-a-thon for a CAUSE

Recent Blog Posts from others in the building:

From the WHS Guidance Office Blog -  Tips on Finding a College

From the Waldwick Media Center Blog - Studies on Reading - Print vs. Electronic

Professional Development 

Google Forms Users - Cool New Feature via Free Technology for Teachers 

Video - How to Insert Images Into Google Forms

Highlights 5/10/13

News:

Modified Bell Schedule for Tuesday, May 21 (Biology Competency Exam) 

Period 1 8:15 - 8:59 (44 minutes)
Period 2 9:02 - 9:46 (44 minutes)
Period 3 9:49 - 10:33 (44 minutes)
Period 4 10:36 - 11:00 (24 minutes)
Period 5 or 6 11:03 - 11:30 (27 minutes)
Period 8 11:33 - 12:03 (30 minutes)
Period 9 12:06 - 12:36  (30 minutes)
**Period 6B or 7 will be eliminated for the day.

The students listed below will be involved with the Boys State Program in June.  Their final exams have been moved up.  The Guidance Department has created a modified exam schedule which was emailed out.

Adam Badalamenti

Ryan Casey

Connor Walsh

Matt Cron

Tyler Diamond

Joe Huban

Steven Deprimo

Questions have been brought up about Professional Development Hours related to the in-district PD Days.  Dr. Raupers gave me the following to share with staff:

My office is in the process now of creating certificates for the members of DEAC and for the WPDA courses.  I will have to check on the hour of HIB training; I don't think we need certificates for that, just a notation on the PD summary sheet.  But I will get back to you on that.  The certificates for the Marshall training will come when the 3 sessions are completed and we check the attendance sheets (that will be in late June for distribution in Sept. when staff returns).  Dr. Raupers 

End of Year Items: 

The June 5th Faculty Meeting will be a full meeting to review End of Year items.  Mark your calendars.    

All pay-orders (checks) and cash transmittal forms (deposits) for all Student Activity Funds need to be in by Tuesday, May 28.  We will be closing out our fiscal year and all checks and deposits need to be cleared out of all the accounts.   If you have a field trip coming up, please turn in all your paperwork as early as possible.   All checks have a two week turnaround time.  Please bear that in mind.  

Link to 12-13 Final Exam Schedule 

On Monday, June 24, part of the Professional Development Day will be devoted to reviewing and explaining the new Student Growth Objectives (SGOs).  Dr. Raupers will be speaking to the entire district on the topic.  At this point, all HS teachers (all subjects) will have to create two SGOs that I have to approve.  The SGOs need to be submitted by November 15 for the 13-14 school year.  All future year's SGOs will be due by October 15. 

Professional Development 

If you have not heard of TED Talks, it's something I would suggest you take a look at.   Their mission: Spreading ideas. 

"We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So we're building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world's most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other".

I recently discovered the TED-Ed site within TED Talks that focuses on creating lessons worth sharing around YouTube videos.  Below is a short video explaining their site and purpose.  You can follow TED-Ed on Twitter @TED_ED

10 Time-Saving Tech Tips from David Pogue 

Saw this video posted on Free Technology for Teachers 

Highlights 5/3/13

News

Congratulations -Ted Opderbeck for receiving the honor of 2012-2013 Teacher of the Year

Again this year the district is offering staff the opportunity to attend professional development workshops at the  Northern Valley Schools Consortium.   If you are interested, please review the link below to see a list of the workshops that are being offered.   If you want to attend a workshop, please email me with your name and the name of the workshop.  I will handle all requests on a first come, first served basis.  All requests must be submitted to me by Thursday, May 9.

13-14 NV PD Catalog

The Spring Edition of the Focus, the newsletter for the Waldwick Public Schools, is posted on the district website. Spring Edition of the Focus

Turnitin.com will undergo some scheduled maintenance Saturday, May 11. This maintenance may interfere with some assignments as the site/system will be unavailable at that time.  All due dates should be moved up or delayed until the following week to avoid any problems.

School Safety Issues
As a staff, we need to stop leaving exit doors open during the school day.  Recently, I have seen many doors propped open by a stick or rock.  There should be NO doors propped open during the school day.  In addition, the senior wing doors and the custodian entrance/lower lot door keeps being unlocked during the day.  All staff should be entering the building using the Main Entrance or Greenberg Center where you can use the code or be buzzed in.  

Teacher Appreciation Week 
Waldwick HS will celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week during the week of May 27th.  
Wednesday, May 29 - Breakfast/Lunch provided by the parents 
Thursday, May 30 - FREE Neck/Hand massages (Signup info to follow)

NJ Biology Competency Test will be administered on May 21 & 22 
Staff members that are proctoring will be notified early next week.  There will be a testing meeting  setup after school for all proctors.  The date of the testing meeting will be included when you are notified to be a proctor.  Testing will take place in the Cafeteria and in  Rooms 417 & 310.  The rest of the school will move as normal.  

End of Year Items 

All pay-orders (checks) and cash transmittal forms (deposits) for all Student Activity Funds need to be in by Tuesday, May 28.  We will be closing out our fiscal year and all checks and deposits need to be cleared out of all the accounts.   If you have a field trip coming up, please turn in all your paperwork as early as possible.   All checks have a two week turnaround time.  Please bear that in mind.  

Link to 12-13 Final Exam Schedule 

On Monday, June 24, part of the Professional Development Day will be devoted to reviewing and explaining the new Student Growth Objectives (SGOs).  Dr. Raupers will be speaking to the entire district on the topic.  At this point all HS teachers (all subjects) will have to create two SGOs that I have to approve.  The SGOs need to be submitted by November 15 for the 13-14 school year.  All future year's SGOs will be due by October 15. 

Blog Post/Tweets

Congratulations to Sr. Colin Sherman on finishing 2nd overall at the Waldwick 5k Race. He finished 1st overall for Waldwick runners
— Waldwick High School (@WaldwickWHS) May 1, 2013

Professional Development 

This weeks PD piece is related to Waldwick High School.  I created a three question Google Form that I am asking all staff respond to.  Link to form:  What can we do, to be better 

Highlights 4/19

News 

I have had a few teachers ask me about the 4th Marking Period Quarterly Exam.   There are NO Quarterly Exams 4th MP.   The Final Exam Schedule will be posted in a few weeks.  Exams will start on Friday, June 14 with one exam starting at 1pm.  We will have a modified schedule on June 14, just as we have had last few years.  

Reminder that the 3^rd Heroes and Cool Kids training at BCC is scheduled for April 26^th.  

On Monday, April 22, the 9th grade class will attend an assembly related to the heart screening that took place last month.  Dr. Tozzi from Hackensack University Medical Center will be here to speak with the students.  The assembly will begin at 2pm in the Little Theater.  9th graders will be called out of their period 8 class at 1:55.  

Senior Portraits for the class of 2014 will take place next week on Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday in the Greenberg Center.  

National Honor Society Induction Ceremony will take place on Thursday, April 25, at 7:30pm in the Little Theater.  My post on the new members - NHS Class of 13-14

Next year marks the 50th Anniversary of Waldwick High School.  We are in the early planning stages of the event and are looking for people to help with the planning.  If you are interested in getting involved please let me know.  

April 25th is bring our Daughters and Sons to Work Day 
If any staff member would like to bring their child to work on April 25, I am ok with it.  I ask you to use good judgment (Age of child, amount of time here) and understand my expectation is that this will not disrupt the education of our students. 

Professional Development 

This blog post comes from Dwight Carter, a HS Principal from Ohio.  Dwight was named one of three 2013 NASSP Digital Principals of the Year.  You can follow him on twitter @Dwight_Carter    

Characteristics Students Want in Teachers

In this post, he shares what his students believe our the characteristics of a great teacher!

Lets keep the people of Boston in our thoughts and prayers during these uncertain times.

highlights 4/12/13

News:

Congratulations to Jenna Sacci on her recent wedding!  We wish Jenna and Matt a lifetime of happiness.  Welcome Matt to #Warriornation!

Marking Period 3 Grade Reporting:

GRADE POSTING - Genesis will be open for you to enter Marking Period 3 grades and comments on Friday, April 12, at 3:00 p.m., and will be closing on Wednesday, April 17, at 9:00 a.m. 

GRADEBOOK – Parent Access will be open for Gradebook viewing on Monday, April 22, at 9 am.

Blog Posts/Tweets:

Congratulations to the New members of the National Honor Society 
Class Rings for "Class of 2015"

Professional Development:

Very interesting article in the NJ SpotLight (You can follow NJ Spotlight on Twitter @njspotlight) on April 8th related to the new Teacher Evaluation System.  Link to article: 

Op-Ed: The DOE’s Teacher Evaluation System Has Obvious Flaws That Ought to Be Corrected Before Initial Implementation

Blogging in the 21st Century Classroom This article comes from the site Edutopia which is part of, The George Lucas Educational Foundation.  You can follow the site on Twitter @edutopia.

Highlights 4/5/13

News: 

• Spring Break Time....... Unfortunately a bit shorter then normal.  When we get back on Thursday, there will only be 51 Days left.   I HOPE EVERYONE HAS A GREAT FEW DAYS OFF!!!!
• Spring Pep Rally will be next Friday, April 12, during 9th period.  Students will be called down from period 8
• Marking Period 3 ends on Friday, April 12
• I did not get copies of everyones Quarterly Exams.  Please get them to me before the end of the day
• I created a separate page on this blog to keep everyone updated on AchieveNJ.  Recently the Dept of Ed released additional resources related to the "Student Growth Objectives" (SGO) that all teachers will need to create.  As new resources become available, I will be posting them here.   On April 11, I will be attending an information session on AchieveNJ, sponsored by the NJ Dept of Education.   I hope to be able to clarify any questions you may have after April 11.   

Link to: Resources Related to AchieveNJ (TeachNJ Act)

School Highlights - Blog Posts/Tweets 

March Students of the Month

@waldwickwhs "Light It Up BLUE" for #AutismAwarenessMonth.Our Front entrance w/ Blue Lights twitter.com/WaldwickWHS/st…
— Waldwick High School (@WaldwickWHS) April 3, 2013

Professional Development: 

7 Good Virtual Tours for Students via Free Technology for Teachers.  There are some great virtual tours in this post.